Posted May 28, 2007; 08:47 p.m.

by Chad Boutin

Grant, a senior research biologist in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology who is a native of Scotland, has been elected a fellow of the society. Grant has long been involved in studying Darwin's finches on the Galapagos Islands, a project the society described as "the most significant field study of evolution of all time, and (which has) changed the course of research in evolutionary biology." She received the Darwin Medal from the Royal Society in 2002.

Ostriker, a professor of astrophysical sciences and director of Princeton's Institute for Computational Science and Engineering, has been elected one of the society's foreign members. The society praised Ostriker's more than four decades of leadership in astrophysics, citing his authorship of "classic papers on pulsars, galactic dynamics, dark matter, cosmic rays, intergalactic gas, cosmic structure formation and cosmology." He received the U.S. National Medal of Science in 2000 and the Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal in 2004.

The Royal Society was founded in 1660 to promote the natural and applied sciences. This year, the society elected 44 fellows and eight foreign members to its ranks.